State officials had promised to pay for the program when the Legislature passed it into law earlier this year, but teacher groups became concerned when funding was stripped from the two-year budget.

On Monday, Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick signed a letter directing the Texas Education Agency to shift funding to cover the $50-per-person cost of the checks for teachers, administrators, counselors, librarians and other professionals.

Dewhurst

The plan negates a potential problem raised this month when the State Board for Educator Certification approved rules that called on either school districts or teachers to pay for the fingerprinting process because of the lack of state funds.

"I pride myself on doing what I said I would do, and this letter carries out our commitment to teachers," Dewhurst said, referring to earlier state promises to cover the cost.

The program will cost $10 million over the next two years to fingerprint about half of all public school employees. The rest will be done in the following two years.

Teacher groups said they were happy with the directive.

"We were confident that it would get worked out, and we're glad it did," said Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association. "Numerous commitments were made during the legislative session that teachers weren't going to have to pay for this. A change at this late date would have been pretty outrageous."